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Team Builder Discussion

7hreshprince·10/17/2013, 5:14:27 PM·3 votes·870 views

Hey everyone, I'm sure by now at least some of you have seen the new feature that Riot is working on. For those that haven't Link to forum post there is the link to the NA discussion on the other forum.

I'm interested to see what people think about it/ideas the community has. I personally like these forums more so I'm hoping that if we get a good thread going we might entice more Rioters to look over here. Personal opinions starting in the comment section below.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) Won't this enforce the meta?

a) Here's an example of a crazy meta that was tried earlier in the day. Team Builder is all about introducing a new, cooperative Champion Select where players can agree to a strategy and team vision before entering a match. Players in Team Builder will be able to outline a strategy they are interested in playing, and the system will find teammates that share that vision. Feel like playing a double jungler strategy or want to send 5 players down the mid-lane? No problem. It might take longer to find 4 other players willing to try a crazy strategy but when you do, you'll know the entire team is bought in and you're going to have fun.

2) Will Team Builder replace other queues?

a) Team Builder is a complete re-design of Champion Select that was inspired by a lot of research on social dynamics and cooperation. Because we're going to iterate on it quite often with player feedback, we opted to create it as an independent queue first and not touch any of the existing queues. Depending on what we learn, we may adapt some or all of Team Builder into the existing queues.

3) Will I have long queue times if I want to play a popular role?

a) In our research, we were surprised that role preferences were pretty diverse. When we surveyed players and asked what their preferred role was, about 15% of players preferred playing Support, 14% of players preferred playing Jungle, and 5% of players were willing to fill any role. We'll be keeping a very close eye on role popularity in Team Builder, but for now, it looks like there are players that are very happy to play the perceived least popular roles if there is a system like Team Builder in place to help create teams.

4) How can I play as a leader in Team Builder?

a) There are two flows in Team Builder. You can opt to be a leader of a group and define strategies for your team--this is usually the recommended path if you have a few premade friends and want to find a few strangers to fill out your team according to your desired composition. You can also opt to be a solo player, choose a champion, role and position and ask the system to look for teams who are looking for your spec.

Special thanks to djump for formatting help/great ideas

16 Comments

7hreshprince10/17/2013, 5:47:57 PM3 votes

As for my two cents for this idea, I like it. I think that it will allow me as a player to play the role/champion that I want and if I'm having trouble getting the role/champion I want I can always select another one.

Big thing that I have seen a lot of people requesting on it though is the ability to que up multiple champions in the solo que aspect. Lyte has said a few times that they are worried that by adding that feature a Team Captain can look at all the options you chose and select what they consider the stronger pick instead of maybe what you really wanted to play.

Example

Team Captain A sees Player 1 wants to play Cassiopia/Victor/Ahri mage, chooses Ahri mage
Player 1 is stuck playing the perceived stronger pick instead of what they wanted.

I can agree that would kind of suck if you really loved Cassiopia and Victor but was ok with Ahri. My idea is you can have a player select up to 3 champions that they would like to play in a Role and have it go for First, Second and Third Pick. When you que up for a game, the Team Captain A would see Player 1 mage Cassiopia and decide if he does or does not want to play with a Cassiopia. Lets say that Team Captain A really hates Cassiopia and declines it. The game would show him that they are searching for another option but keep Player 1 at the top of the que for him and after a small delay show Player 1 Victor mage. Now Team Captain A decides he is ok with a Victor mage and accepts, not knowing that it was the same player that wanted to play Cassiopia.

Example

Team Captain A sees Player 1 Cassiopia mage, declines Player 1 stays top in que for this match since he still has two other choices left small delay Team Captain A sees Player 1 Victor mage, Accepts Player 1 gets second choice rather than getting stuck with their last pick

Update

I also agree with the other comments I've been seeing in this thread on being able to switch champions once in a lobby with someone. Only thing that I would be worried about is being bullied into changing so I'll give my example of what could be added after my previous idea to allow for someone to change their champion after being in the lobby.

Example

Gets in game, clicks willing to change champ box Team Captain sees that you are willing to switch champions and conversation happens about what you might consider switching to.

End Example

That option in my opinion would allow for the player to get selected based on the champion that they like, but if they feel like they might want to switch because of team composition they initiate it. I think it would help prevent someone from bullying them into switching (I know you can't prevent it all) but it communicates that you would be willing to switch to another champion.

As always I am open to constructive criticism for any idea that I post.

djump10/17/2013, 5:29:38 PM1 votes

Hey, great idea to start a thread here. Here is a link to the forum post for those that haven't read it. and I'll post the faq that Lyte has listed below:

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) Won't this enforce the meta?

a) Here's an example of a crazy meta that was tried earlier in the day. Team Builder is all about introducing a new, cooperative Champion Select where players can agree to a strategy and team vision before entering a match. Players in Team Builder will be able to outline a strategy they are interested in playing, and the system will find teammates that share that vision. Feel like playing a double jungler strategy or want to send 5 players down the mid-lane? No problem. It might take longer to find 4 other players willing to try a crazy strategy but when you do, you'll know the entire team is bought in and you're going to have fun.

2) Will Team Builder replace other queues?
a) Team Builder is a complete re-design of Champion Select that was inspired by a lot of research on social dynamics and cooperation. Because we're going to iterate on it quite often with player feedback, we opted to create it as an independent queue first and not touch any of the existing queues. Depending on what we learn, we may adapt some or all of Team Builder into the existing queues.

3) Will I have long queue times if I want to play a popular role?
a) In our research, we were surprised that role preferences were pretty diverse. When we surveyed players and asked what their preferred role was, about 15% of players preferred playing Support, 14% of players preferred playing Jungle, and 5% of players were willing to fill any role.

We'll be keeping a very close eye on role popularity in Team Builder, but for now, it looks like there are players that are very happy to play the perceived least popular roles if there is a system like Team Builder in place to help create teams.

4) How can I play as a leader in Team Builder?
a) There are two flows in Team Builder. You can opt to be a leader of a group and define strategies for your team--this is usually the recommended path if you have a few premade friends and want to find a few strangers to fill out your team according to your desired composition.

You can also opt to be a solo player, choose a champion, role and position and ask the system to look for teams who are looking for your spec.

ZanjotheMonster10/17/2013, 6:15:56 PM1 votes

Best idea ever!!! I'm a heavy top player and i can't tell you how many times i've been forced out of it even in bot games :P so this would really let players like myself and my buddy get better in our field of play :) The only problem i can think of is what if someone bashes and rips on someone for their champ selection? would there be a choice by the "team leader" to kick them if it got out of hand?

Rinto10/17/2013, 7:51:52 PM1 votes

Is there going to be a "fill" option?

Zorthian11/4/2013, 1:39:26 AM1 votes

also when will team builder be implemented in league?